By Jake Donovan

If ever there were such a fight where high risk and low reward existed on both sides of the marquee, the main event of HBO’s offering this weekend would be it.

Nobody wants to fight Paul Williams.

Nobody wants to fight Winky Wright.

Neither was the first choice on the other’s list of fighters to face, but beggars can’t be choosers in today’s economy. So for the sake of sticking it to the rest of the industry, they fight each other this Saturday at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas (HBO, 10PM ET/7PM PT).

Their reasons are different – one fights to stay busy, the other in efforts to have his picture removed from the back of milk cartons. Regardless of the backdrop, they fight each other.

Because they have to.

Also, because they want to.

But mostly, because they have to.

Plenty, in fact far too many fighters often boast of their willingness to face “anyone, anywhere at any time.” More often than not, what they really mean is that so long as the money is right (read: career-high payday) and every one of his demands are met (weight, location, ring size, glove size and color, number of comped suites, etc.), then they’ll consider taking a fight that represents anything riskier than a sure thing.

Every so often, you find those who are actually willing to fight more than once or twice a year. They don’t care against whom. They don’t care at what venue or even what weight the fight takes place. All they want to hear is that something is lined up soon enough to prevent them from growing stale.

Welcome to the world of division-jumping Paul “The Punisher” Williams.

In an era where TV dates are sparse and network executives are becoming more selective than ever with what they are willing to accept, Williams (36-1, 27KO) comes off of a 2008 campaign that includes four – count ‘em, four – televised fights.

The year began on as lousy a note as could possibly be the case, when the man labeled Boxing’s Most Avoided found himself thoroughly outworked by Carlos Quintana in one of the year’s biggest upset. To date, it remains the lone loss of his career, one that came after what easily ranks as his greatest achievement as a pro thus far when he outpointed Antonio Margarito seven months prior.

To this day, the story that came out of that evening was never what Quintana did right, but where Williams went wrong. Make no mistake, the Puerto Rican delivered the best performance of his career that night and deserves major props. But the fact that Williams was able to blast through him in the rematch without so much as breaking a sweat left many to speculate what happened in February.

The aforementioned note of a seven-month break between fights could have something to do with it, although it didn’t seem to bother him when he faced Margarito following a similar layoff. But the difference between the two fights was that Williams was still fighting for respect, having lacked a career-defining win to that point. Once he found it, the rest was supposed to be easy.

Instead, he was forced to retrace his steps and exact revenge on his lone conqueror before proceeding with his career. With the one-round exit in his rematch with Quintana last June, Williams was anxious to return to the ring as soon as possible.

He was willing to wait out the results of Margarito’s summer clash with Miguel Cotto, but not much longer. Going idle for at least two months would be downtime well spent, so long as he could get the winner to face him in a fight that would’ve determined welterweight supremacy.

The winner turned out to be Margarito, but apparently avenging past losses wasn’t on his mind, not even to the tune of a $4 million package offered by Williams’ faithful and tireless promoter, Dan Goossen.

Not wanting to endure another year like 2007, where only fight made its way to his ledger, the marching orders Team Williams delivered were to secure a fight as soon as possible.

Anyone, any place, any time.

Williams would back up his words in his next two fights, fighting at middleweight (KO1 Andy Kolle, September ’08) and then junior middleweight (TKO8 Verno Phillips, November ’08) while still keeping an eye on progress atop the welterweight division.

A return to boxing’ most loaded division was once again offered by Williams shortly after Shane Mosley’s turn-back-the-clock performance against Margarito earlier this year. Mosley is another throwback fighter, in regards to those who never shy away from a challenge.

Once again, a lucrative offer was made by Goossen-Tutor Promotions to lure a top welterweight in the ring with their guy.

Once again, nothing but crickets.

Mosley’s alibi was that he, much like everyone else from 135-147, was waiting out the results of the May 2 super fight between Ricky Hatton and Manny Pacquiao. The former three-division world champion hopes to lure the winner seven pounds north, offering a crack at his title in exchange for the biggest payday of his career.

Moderate risk, ridiculous reward. How is Paul Williams to compete with that?

Simple. By continuing to accept fights, regardless of the risk-reward ratio.

After all, how many other fighters have been willing to face Winky Wright, even an aged, inactive version who hasn’t won a fight more than two years?

Wright can certainly empathize with Williams’ dilemma, as much of his career was spent on the outside looking in, despite two separate reigns as a junior middleweight titlist.

Though some of his recent business deals have been greatly exaggerated by the media, Wright’s had his share of questionable decisions at the negotiating table during his career. He’d eventually get – and twice defeat – Shane Mosley in the ring, but initially had the chance to do so while Shane was still undefeated and regarded as the very best in the world.

Instead, he took issue with a proposal that had him making “short money” to defend his alphabet title on HBO against Mosley, who would’ve come up in weight, but also make four times as much as the payday offered to Wright.

The payday and the glory instead went to Vernon Forrest, who twice beat Shane to nab the welterweight crown and 2002 Fighter of the Year honors. Meanwhile, Wright was forced to serve as the opening act for telecasts headlined by Roy Jones’ mandatory title defenses.

That changed in 2004 with the pair of wins over Mosley, and even more so for the better a year later when he pitched a shutout against Felix Trinidad, collecting a $4.5 million payday in the process. Thirteen months later, another lucrative day at the office, though sans the result he desired as he was forced to settle for a split decision draw in his June 2006 battle with then-middleweight king Jermain Taylor.

Like most of Taylor’s title reign, the ending was controversial enough to where a rematch was warranted. Though unlike Taylor’s other title defenses, the Wright bout was highly entertaining, which only created anticipation for a return go.

Unfortunately, Wright overestimated how much that anticipation was worth. The rematch never came, and his career slowed to a crawl, fighting just twice more – a  two-knockdown, 12-round decision win over Ike Quartey, followed by a 12-round decision loss to Hopkins in their unwatchable July ’07 catchweight bout.

Twenty-one months and several passed opportunities later, Wright resurfaces. His name had been attached to rumors and negotiations involving the likes of Kelly Pavlik, Arthur Abraham and Mikkel Kessler, none of who would wind up in the ring with the gifted southpaw.

During a recent conference call, Wright challenged any fighter, manager or promoter to go one record while he was in the public eye, and claim that he turned down any reasonable offer to fight any opponent. His claims were backed up by Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer, who claimed to have negotiated with several fighters on Wright’s behalf, with Williams being the only taker in the end.

So leads us to this weekend’s headlining act, one which caps a night loaded with boxing-related entertainment on HBO.

Preceding the Williams-Wright broadcast will be two separate documentaries – “Thrilla In Manilla”, which obviously chronicles the legendary rivalry (chief among them the rubber match to which the title references) between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier; and “Hatton/Pacquiao 24/7”, the first of four 30-minute segments dedicated to the upcoming May 2 super fight.

In the case of Ali-Frazier and Hatton-Pacquiao, the fights were made simply because they were/are too big for boxing to turn its back. When there’s a chance of a fight of such magnitude occurring, you empty the vault to ensure that the people get what they deserve.

It is in that regard that Williams-Wright as a nightcap almost seems out of place. With the aforementioned fights comes a far more favorable risk-to-reward ratio, where losing doesn’t matter because the event becomes so much bigger than the sport itself.

Even if he ever one day reaches that level, Williams is far too humble to ever claim to be bigger than the sport. What he will continue to claim, though, is his presence as a major player in any division in which he can comfortably make weight – basically from welterweight all the way through super middleweight.

There are fights he still desires, but only catches the backside of those opponents on his wish list. Until his luck changes in that regard, his standards for accepting fights remains simple – put ink to paper and he’ll gladly meet you in the ring.

Anyone, any place, any time.

Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of Boxingscene.com and a voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Contact Jake at JakeNDaBox@gmail.com